#123

Stress surged within him, causing his pheromones to creep out slowly. Ki-hyuk moistened his mouth once more with whiskey and grabbed his car keys.

On days when stress accumulated like this, his sexual desire boiled over. And when it rose, it had to be released.

Ki-hyuk dialed his lover’s number to tell him to start loosening his back hole immediately. However, the phone only rang.

“He’s not fucking picking up.”

He changed his mind. Kwon Ki-hyuk tossed his phone onto the passenger seat and started the engine.

Vroom—!

The low-slung black sports car carrying Kwon Ki-hyuk climbed the hill menacingly. The destination was his family home, the mansion in Seongbuk-dong.

“You must be dying to throw bait to the reporters right now. I believe I told you to stay hidden at home until things were settled.”

Kwon Myung-chul emerged with a stiff expression, dressed in pajamas. Ki-hyuk curled his lip into a smirk and called out, “Father.”

“You said everything would be settled by today. Then why is my name still being mentioned in the news!”

“Thanks to someone, there are so many things to clean up that I have a splitting headache. Since you’re here, let me ask. What happened with that reporter named Kim In-jung?”

“I told you I don’t know anything about it.”

“This is no time to lie brazenly. You must tell me the truth. Only then can I properly handle the situation!”

“…….”

Kwon Ki-hyuk lifted his chin and looked at Myung-chul with a displeased face.

“I don’t know. To me, you seem a bit strange too, Father. Whether I buried Kim In-jung or hid him, I could have just had Kwon Jung-hyun take the fall for everything… so why hasn’t that come up?”

Myung-chul fell silent. Ki-hyuk slowly walked toward his father.

“What did Kwon Jung-hyun give you?”

“Why is Jung-hyun suddenly coming up here?”

His half-closed eyes stared intently at Myung-chul’s face.

“Why was the wedding canceled? Kyung Seung-hee is ignoring my messages, and my little brother sold his house and canceled his phone plan. There’s no way you wouldn’t know about this, Father.”

“Kwon Ki-hyuk.”

“Where is Kwon Jung-hyun?”

“…….”

“Where did you hide him!?”

Ki-hyuk screamed and grabbed Myung-chul by the collar. Myung-chul responded with a calm face.

“I don’t know where your brother is either. That was the condition.”

“Fuck.”

Ki-hyuk abruptly let go of the collar.

“You might not know, Father, but our stepmother probably does. Right? I wonder where she is. Is she sleeping in the bedroom? I’ll just go ask.”

“Kwon Ki-hyuk!”

Myung-chul’s angry voice stopped Ki-hyuk in his tracks.

“You asked what Jung-hyun gave? What do you think he gave?”

Ki-hyuk replied with a smirk.

“How should I know, Father? You’re not telling me.”

“Can’t you see that whatever it was, those conditions were accepted entirely for your sake? All you have to do is keep a low profile and stay quiet for a while as I told you. Then your father will settle everything.”

“…….”

Ki-hyuk stopped smiling and glared at Myung-chul with a cold, sharp expression.

“As I said before, you are to wash your hands of the hockey team now. The team, your brother, and the player named Shin Ho-jae. Not touching those three things ever again. That was your brother’s condition. If you break that, you, I, and Myeong-jeong will all collapse.”

“Aha… So my father hid Kwon Jung-hyun for the sake of the great Myeong-jeong? Fuck, I told you Kwon Jung-hyun is mine!”

Slap!

Myung-chul raised his hand and struck him.

“Get a grip, please. Stop this creepy obsession with your brother!”

Ki-hyuk slowly turned his head back from the side. The pupils staring straight at Myung-chul were bloodshot.

“Creepy? That’s a strange way to put it…?”

“…….”

“Why? Are you worried I might shove my dick into Kwon Jung-hyun?”

Myung-chul shouted, turning pale.

“Kwon Ki-hyuk! Watch your mouth!”

“I’m joking. Even I have no intention of shoving my dick into a brother I share blood with. For now, anyway.”

“……If you want to be erased from the family register, go ahead and keep wagging that tongue.”

“Oops.”

Ki-hyuk raised his palms as if surrendering and stepped back with a smirk. After glaring at him for a long while, Myung-chul let out a deep sigh and spoke.

“The smell of alcohol is foul. I’ll call Driver Kim, so go home quietly. And don’t come out again until everything is settled. Do you understand?”

“Yeees.”

Tsking, Myung-chul turned his back.

Upon leaving the mansion, Driver Kim was waiting for him, just as his father had said. He was a man who lived at the mansion and served as the driver for his father and stepmother.

“Where shall I take you, young master?”

“To the Seocho-dong officetel.”

It was where Ki-hyuk’s lover lived. Nodding, the driver opened the rear door and said,

“Please call me when you are ready to return, and I will come pick you up.”

Kwon Ki-hyuk didn’t answer and climbed into the back seat. The car, with Driver Kim at the wheel, glided smoothly away.

Watching the Seongbuk-dong hill recede through the window, Ki-hyuk tapped his crossed thigh.

‘The team, your brother, and the player named Shin Ho-jae. Not touching those three things ever again. That was your brother’s condition.’

A belated, absurd chuckle escaped him.

He used Shin Ho-jae as a condition…?

As expected, the relationship between Shin Ho-jae and Kwon Jung-hyun wasn’t ordinary.

“Those fucking bastards…”

Ki-hyuk murmured in a low voice with an expressionless face.

If so, was the incident where Shin Ho-jae appeared on an internet broadcast talking nonsense, and the condition he set for his father to leave him and Shin Ho-jae alone, all a plan conceived by Kwon Jung-hyun?

Did they think he would collapse because of that? Over something so trivial?

Slowly running his tongue along the inside of his cheek, Ki-hyuk made a phone call as soon as he arrived in front of the Seocho-dong officetel.

While listening to the ringing tone, his eyes followed Driver Kim’s departing car. He had intentionally waited until he got out of the car to call. If he leaked any clues in front of Driver Kim, it would go straight to his father’s ears.

Eventually, with a click, the ringing stopped.

“Player Shin, it’s been a while.”

When he asked with a relaxed smile, a slow answer returned.

─…It’s been a while. Vice President.

“I enjoyed the broadcast. I didn’t know you looked so good on screen.”

As he sneered, silence flowed from the other end. The other party seemed flustered, perhaps not expecting him to call personally. What an idiot. Swallowing his ridicule, Ki-hyuk spoke in a brazen tone.

“Watching the broadcast, it seems I’ve made Player Shin quite upset… I couldn’t even sleep because I felt so sorry.”

─…….

“So, about that. Won’t you give me a chance to apologize? Let’s meet for a bit.”

─If it’s an apology, doing it over the phone is sufficient.

“What’s with this? I have to meet you in person to show a small token of my sincerity. We aren’t the type of people to let our relationship sour like this.”

─…….

“Think of the late Chairman. Hmm?”

Only when he mentioned his grandfather did Shin Ho-jae slowly open his mouth. A fishy smile played on Ki-hyuk’s lips.

* * *

Shin Ho-jae was in the training room of the Suwon stadium.

Was there a place like this? Looking around the interior with indifference, Ki-hyuk spotted Shin Ho-jae’s back as he ran on a treadmill and slowly approached.

“Wow. Our Player Shin is hardworking even during the off-season. Other players should take note. Oh, no need to stop. I can’t interfere with your workout.”

Sensing someone’s presence, Shin Ho-jae took out his earphones and tried to press the stop button, but Ki-hyuk stopped him with a gesture and abruptly picked up the phone resting on the machine.

And before Shin Ho-jae could say anything, he lit up the screen. After confirming that no specific app was open, Ki-hyuk dropped Shin Ho-jae’s phone straight onto the floor.

The moment Shin Ho-jae frowned, Kwon Ki-hyuk stepped on the screen with his dress shoe and slowly crushed it without hesitation. With a cracking sound, the screen shattered.

“……What are you doing?”

Drenched in sweat, Shin Ho-jae brought the treadmill to a complete stop. Ki-hyuk, with a nonchalant attitude, took a leather wallet from inside his jacket and opened it.

“Buy a new one. Someone of Player Shin’s stature should use the latest model. What is this? A model from several years ago.”

What he held out was a bundle of 50,000 won bills.

“…….”

Shin Ho-jae stared at Kwon Ki-hyuk without a word. Ki-hyuk curled his lips into a smile and tossed the bundle of money, which Shin Ho-jae didn’t take, onto the treadmill. He even tapped the bills with his finger as if reminding him not to forget to take them.

“I’ve developed a bit of a neurosis lately. What if Player Shin secretly recorded our conversation? It’s better to block that possibility from the start. Don’t you agree?”

“…….”

“Oh, just in case, you don’t happen to have a pen-shaped recorder or something, do you?”

“…It seems the Vice President didn’t come here with the intention of apologizing.”

“Apologizing? I think I’m the one who should be receiving an apology from Player Shin. How can you, a public figure, go on a broadcast and spread false information, Player Shin?”

“False information…?”

“Just because you brought some plausible script and had an AI read it, does that make it something I said? Is there any proof that the recording is my voice?”

“…….”

“The thing with reporter Kim In-jung too. A grown man hasn’t been in contact for a few days, so you call it a disappearance—that part is fine, but why pin it on me? Since there are departure records, you could have just looked for him in the Philippines.”

Kwon Ki-hyuk spoke as if chewing the words, swallowing a hollow laugh at the end. Yes. Why on earth were they acting so sluggishly when things could be handled this way? To think they were all flustered by things Kwon Jung-hyun had done.

“Since neither of us seems inclined to apologize, I’ll get straight to the point. Where did you hide my little brother?”

At those words, a furrow formed between Shin Ho-jae’s brows.

“What are you talking about?”

“Aha. You’re going to pretend you don’t know? I let it slide before, but I can’t do that this time. I’ve looked into everything.”

Shin Ho-jae kept his mouth shut and looked at Ki-hyuk with wary eyes. Ki-hyuk slowly approached Shin Ho-jae, stepping on the shards of the broken screen.

“What excuse did you make before? That it was disgusting to be involved with a Beta man in that way?”

“…….”

“Player Shin knows how to use his head quite well. I had a prejudice that athletes were stupid.”

Kwon Ki-hyuk chuckled, finding it amusing.

“So, how is it? How does it feel to fuck a Beta man’s ass?”

At those words, Shin Ho-jae’s face stiffened far more than it had when his phone was crushed.

A fishy smile hung on Kwon Ki-hyuk’s lips. This idiot. No matter how much he flew or crawled, he was just a twenty-something kid whose blood hadn’t even dried yet. Provoking a child like this was easier than flipping a palm.

“Our Jung-hyun has a tight back, so it tears if you’re not careful. I wonder if you loosened him up properly before shoving it in?”

124 – PUCK DROP